Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Hi Everyone!

I am doing spectacularly this week. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary. It's crazy awesome.

This
week I got a new companion! Her name is Hermana Garcia! She is so
wonderful. She is from Australia, and just got transferred from the
Spanish speaking part of the mission, (where she has been for her entire
mission up to this point) into an English speaking part of the mission.
So that has been a little bit crazy, and we've had an interesting time
together trying to adjust, but we are doing well together. She has this
crazy long red hair, and is probably the sweetest person on the planet. I
feel very blessed to be able to know her.

After
transfers on Wednesday, we had to drop Sister Blair off at the Mission
office so she could be driven to the airport. It was so hard to say
goodbye to her. There were 8 other sisters going home with her, and so
many people were crying. We were all a mess, but she is happy to be home
with her family for Christmas.

We also got to
help set up and be a part of the Ward Christmas Party. It was a blast,
and an awesome experience. We met so many people that we hadn't ever met
before, and were able to talk to the Anaheim Spanish missionaries,
which was fun. (The Anaheim Spanish Ward meets in our building, so we
had our Christmas party together.) I tried tamales for the first time.
They are so good, but maybe a little bit spicy for me. We had an awesome
time, and loved spending time with our ward.

We are still working with Gamal, and hoping that he will keep progressing and working towards his baptismal date.

I
want to talk about Julie. Julie is the 16 year old girl who we met last
week. She told us last week on Sunday that she wanted to come to
church, and we've had other people tell us that in the past, and then
they didn't show up. It's super disappointing when people don't keep
commitments. Anyways, we called her on Thursday, and asked if she was
planning on coming, and if she needed a ride, etc. She said that she was
coming!!! Then she came!!!! Oh man, so much stuff happened yesterday
that could have prevented everything from happening like it did, but it
was amazing! She stayed at all three hours of church, and she wants to
come back next week! She is also letting us come and talk with her
tomorrow and on Thursday. I cannot express how blessed I feel that we
found her. She was telling us yesterday about how she had been searching
for a church, and wanted to come closer to God. What the amazing!!!

That's
about it! I'm so excited for Christmas, and I'm excited to see what the
next week brings, because life is never boring as a missionary. I love
this gospel, and I love this Christmas season where people are so much
more open to talking about Christ and remembering him.

I love you all so much, and want to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Love, Sister Wood :)

Picture
1) This is Sister Garcia and I along with two of the Bishops daughters.
I put a wreath on my head, and soon everyone else had a wreath on their
head, so we took a picture. Also, the little girls wanted to wear our
coats. This happened while we were setting up for the ward Christmas
party.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Hi Everyone!

I am doing spectacularly this week. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary. It's crazy awesome.

This
week I got a new companion! Her name is Hermana Garcia! She is so
wonderful. She is from Australia, and just got transferred from the
Spanish speaking part of the mission, (where she has been for her entire
mission up to this point) into an English speaking part of the mission.
So that has been a little bit crazy, and we've had an interesting time
together trying to adjust, but we are doing well together. She has this
crazy long red hair, and is probably the sweetest person on the planet. I
feel very blessed to be able to know her.

After
transfers on Wednesday, we had to drop Sister Blair off at the Mission
office so she could be driven to the airport. It was so hard to say
goodbye to her. There were 8 other sisters going home with her, and so
many people were crying. We were all a mess, but she is happy to be home
with her family for Christmas.

We also got to
help set up and be a part of the Ward Christmas Party. It was a blast,
and an awesome experience. We met so many people that we hadn't ever met
before, and were able to talk to the Anaheim Spanish missionaries,
which was fun. (The Anaheim Spanish Ward meets in our building, so we
had our Christmas party together.) I tried tamales for the first time.
They are so good, but maybe a little bit spicy for me. We had an awesome
time, and loved spending time with our ward.

We are still working with Gamal, and hoping that he will keep progressing and working towards his baptismal date.

I
want to talk about Julie. Julie is the 16 year old girl who we met last
week. She told us last week on Sunday that she wanted to come to
church, and we've had other people tell us that in the past, and then
they didn't show up. It's super disappointing when people don't keep
commitments. Anyways, we called her on Thursday, and asked if she was
planning on coming, and if she needed a ride, etc. She said that she was
coming!!! Then she came!!!! Oh man, so much stuff happened yesterday
that could have prevented everything from happening like it did, but it
was amazing! She stayed at all three hours of church, and she wants to
come back next week! She is also letting us come and talk with her
tomorrow and on Thursday. I cannot express how blessed I feel that we
found her. She was telling us yesterday about how she had been searching
for a church, and wanted to come closer to God. What the amazing!!!

That's
about it! I'm so excited for Christmas, and I'm excited to see what the
next week brings, because life is never boring as a missionary. I love
this gospel, and I love this Christmas season where people are so much
more open to talking about Christ and remembering him.

I love you all so much, and want to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Love, Sister Wood :)

Picture
1) This is Sister Garcia and I along with two of the Bishops daughters.
I put a wreath on my head, and soon everyone else had a wreath on their
head, so we took a picture. Also, the little girls wanted to wear our
coats. This happened while we were setting up for the ward Christmas
party.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Hello!

Can you believe that I have been a missionary
for two days shy of three months? Because I can't. It's super weird,
and I feel like I am in this alternate universe where time
simultaneously stands still and moves really fast at the same time. It
seems like just yesterday I was saying goodbye to my family and walking
into the MTC. Man, It's seriously weird.

This week has been nuts. So many things going on all the time. We never have enough time to do everything that we need to.

On
Monday We got to go to Balboa Island, which is this awesome little
man-made island in the ocean. There are lots of little shops and places
to go. It was a super fun Sisters activity.

On
Tuesday, we had a successful day of tracting and visiting less-actives.
We had some interesting conversations with this man who is a professor
of theology. We tried really hard not to argue with him and just leave,
but he really wanted to talk to us about different religions and why
ours was wrong... So we just testified to him, and disengaged. It was a
weird conversation. We also had our Christmas... Activity? As a whole
mission. It is always fun to see all the people who came out with me. We
had a blast, and got to see a lot of friends.

For
the past few weeks, we have been able to go and help at Habitat for
Humanity. It has been a great opportunity to do service for us. Service
is one of my favorite things to do for people. I love going and helping
with whatever we can. It's great. :) Especially when you see how much
people need help and see how grateful they are for you. It makes being a
missionary so amazing.

We also had a
mission-wide Sisters training meeting. They gave trainings on so many
things. Modesty, music, love languages and how to get along better with
your companion, and many other things. We heard the story of how our
mission president and his wife met and got married, and it was probably
one of the sweetest stories I've ever heard. After they were done
telling the story, he got down on his knee and proposed to her again.
(He has always felt like he didn't do it right the first time.) I
looked around while this was happening, ( I have to admit I shed a few
tears as well) and almost all of the Sisters were crying at least a
little bit. It just made me laugh, because this would never happen at an
Elders training.

One of the STL's made up a
rap and was going to present it during one of the trainings, and at the
Christmas party was asking around to see if anyone knew how to beat-box.
I have a very, very, very basic form of beat-boxing, (It's not very
good) but she asked me to "drop a beat" for her during the Sisters
training meeting. It was fun, and an opportunity to share a talent that I
had never really considered to be a talent of mine. It was fun. :)

Last
story for today. :) Yesterday, Sister Blair and I went tracting for an
hour before dinner. We prayed before, and asked Heavenly Father to help
us find someone who we could help. As we were walking, we saw this girl
standing in her driveway, and we went and talked to her. We started our
normal spiel, "Hi, we're the missionaries! Could we share this quick two
minute video with you?" She said yes, so we shared the A Savior is Born
video with her. After it was over, I asked her how she felt, she
proceeded to tell us about her depression that she had been dealing with
for years, and how now she didn't really feel anything anymore. I felt
so sad at that moment, because here was this beautiful daughter of God,
who didn't think that she could ever feel His love, or even feel happy
ever again. I suddenly had this prompting that I had to tell her. So I
testified of things that I knew. That she was a daughter of a loving
Heavenly Father who only wanted her happiness. I testified of the
Atonement, and repentance. As I was talking, she started to cry, and the
Spirit in that moment was so strong. I knew that she could feel it, and
that the Spirit was telling her that what I was saying was true. I had
another thought at that moment, that I needed to invite her to be
baptized. I was taken aback, because I had just met this girl, and I
didn't want her to think I was nuts for inviting her to be baptized...
But I asked that if she had a witness and knew that the things we had
shared were true, if she would be baptized, and she said yes! She also
said that we could come back and teach her and her family, and that she
would come to church! It was such an amazing miracle that we were able
to meet her and testify to her, and help her feel the Spirit. I am so
excited to see her again.

Heavenly Father is
just waiting to bless us. When we are obedient and do the things that he
has asked us to do, he will make miracles happen in our lives. I have
seen it time and time again on my mission so far.

Transfers!!!
I will be staying in South Coast for this next transfer, ( our ward was
really happy about that :) ) and I will be getting a new companion.
Sister Blair returns to New Mexico on Wednesday, which is crazy, because
we just got here. I can't believe that it's almost 2016. I'm nervous,
but excited for transfers, and I will let you all know what's going on!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Hiya!

Life is so great! I love being a missionary. :)

Man, this week has been a little bit crazy. Every week is crazy, but this one was super hectic.

So,
on Tuesday we had Sister Blair's departing dinner. ( This is where all
of the missionaries going home get to invite one other missionary, and
go have dinner and a testimony meeting at the Mission Home.) It was
really nice, and I felt blessed that Sister Blair invited me to go with
her. She also invited her other greenie, and it was really fun. After
the dinner, we all sat in this big circle in the living room, and were
asked to share a memory or something we learned from one of the
departing missionaries. We were so grateful that Elders and Sisters have
separate dinners because as soon as the first person started talking,
everyone started crying. Seriously, so many tears. It was a mess. It was
really awesome, and really spiritual, but we tried to take some
pictures afterwards, and it was all puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks.
So many tears. But it was good.

To make things
more interesting, we had zone 24's that night as well. (Where the whole
zone gets together and switches companions for 24 hours) We were super
late. Most people know that I'm not a super prompt person anyway, (I am
getting better at it on my mission) but we were super late. I felt
really bad for all of our temporary companions. They were not very
pleased with us. We didn't get to bed until almost midnight, which is
super late for missionaries. I went on a 24 with Sister Bauer (who I
came out with) and Sister Van Den Braun (the British one) in their area.
We had an awesome time together. We had a lot of fun, and talked to
some awesome people. I am so glad I got to be with them for a day and
hear their testimonies.

We also have started
sharing the "A Savior is Born" video. It is so awesome! I love that
video, so so so so so so so much. It is awesome. I love sharing it with
people as well. Seriously, it's the best. Being a missionary is the
best!

The day after 24's (Thursday I think) I
went on an exchange down in the Spanish area. Oh my goodness. I thought I
understood Spanish. Who was I kidding? No one. I do not understand or
speak Spanish at all. It was so funny, cause I would be sitting there
nodding, pretending like I understood what everyone was saying, but then
someone would ask me a question, and I'm pretty sure I looked just like
a deer in the headlights. I did not get it. My temporary companion,
Hermana Garcia, said it was so hard not to laugh, because it was so
obvious that I had no clue what was happening. I also got a massive
headache from trying to follow along. They called it a "greenie
headache" Which makes sense. I am so grateful I got to be there though. I
felt the spirit, and I know that no matter what language we are
speaking, the gospel is still true, and the spirit can still touch our
hearts. It was a very fun day.

On Friday, we
went to DLC. (District Leadership Council) Where the District Leaders
and Zone Leaders, and STL's go and talk about the zone and how to better
help the missionaries in the zone. Because Sister Blair is the only STL
in our zone, I get to (have to?) go with her. No one can play the
piano, so we always sing the hymns A Capella. This is always and
adventure because most of the people there... try their hardest to sing
in tune, but it's hard with out a piano. Anyways, one of the Elders
started the song, but he started it on a super high note. So, we are
trying to sing along... but we can't. I just couldn't do it. So I
changed the key and shifted down a few notes in the middle of the song.
We all lost it. It sounded awful, and we just started laughing really
hard. Sister Blair was crying from laughing so hard. We were trying to
be reverent, but it took forever to calm down.

Anyways,
that's about it for this week. We have transfer calls this week, and
then Transfer meeting next Tuesday. I will definitely let you all know
where I'm going!

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Greetings Everyone!!

So, I know I talk about this a
lot, but the weather is seriously so weird. I can't get used to it. I
keep expecting to wake up to snow on the ground, but that doesn't happen
in California. Also, everyone is talking about something called El
Nino, which is this humongous storm that is supposed to come and hit
California. I love the rain and I am crossing my fingers that it
happens, cause that would be awesome. Also, California needs the rain,
so added bonus.

There are so many awesome
things that happened this week! Seriously, so many miracles. I have
learned a lot this week about God's timing. Seriously though, it's nuts.
He just puts people in our path when we need them to be there. We have
met some amazing people this week. We have had so many experiences where
we would go somewhere, and it wouldn't work out, we'd try all of our
back up plans, and nothing would be working out, so we would go
somewhere that we felt prompted to go, and bam! Someone who needed us
right at that moment. It's amazing what the Lord will do with us when we
surrender ourselves over to him.

I love this
gospel so much. I love teaching people about it. We were able to have an
awesome lesson with one of our investigators about the Book of Mormon.
We took one of the new members of our ward with us, and it was amazing.
The member bore such a strong testimony and was able to relate so much
to our investigator. We knew that it had been inspired that we had taken
that specific person with us to teach that lesson. When we asked her
how she felt when we read from the Book of Mormon, she talked about how
peaceful and happy she felt. I cannot tell you how amazing it feels when
you realize that someone is feeling the Spirit because of something
that Heavenly Father let you bring into their lives. I know that we as
missionaries couldn't do what we do with out the companionship of the
Holy Ghost. Without him there to testify and be a witness to the people
you are teaching, there would be no point in trying to teach. But with
the Holy Ghost, we can do anything, and he can touch the hearts of so
many people.

Last Sunday, the teacher of the
Gospel Principles class said he was sick and wouldn't be able to teach
the lesson. He asked if we could teach it. We didn't have the book, but
we thought we should be able to wing it. We get to the class, and we
find out that we will be teaching... The Law of Chastity. I was kind of
dreading it. Our newest member, (who had just been baptized the day
before) walked in and someone said, "Guess what the lesson is?" He
responded, totally kidding, "The Law of Chastity!" We all died laughing,
and then he said, "Wait is it really the Law of Chastity?" When we
nodded, "I've heard this lesson four times in the past month!"Oh man, it
was so funny.

We also had the opportunity to
see the Churches Christmas initiative video. (Like the Because he lives
video in Easter) It is so good. My whole mission was sitting in the
chapel and we watched the video probably four times. The spirit in that
room was so, so strong. I can't wait for you all to see it. (It comes
out on November 29th) It is so good. I'm excited to start using it to
find people and help people "Discover why" I am so stoked!!!! It's going
to be amazing!

Dang! I don't have anymore
time, but I am so happy to be out here serving a mission. I have a
testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He loves us so much. I love
this gospel and I am grateful to be able to devote this year and a half
of my life to him and his work. It is amazing to see Heavenly Father's
hand in my life. I love you all so much. I have a challenge! This
challenge will take a while, but for a whole year, I want you to write
down one thing you are grateful for every single day. I will be doing
this as well. Starting today. Put that thing in a jar, box, whatever
will hold 365 (366, because of leap year :) ) pieces of paper, and next
year go through and read all of the things you were grateful for. I am
so excited! I promise that if you take this challenge, you will have an
increased capacity to see Heavenly Father's influence in your life.